The Home Machinist!

It should be made clear that I've not said negative rake doesn't work on light duty machines. What I've tried to make clear is that the results don't live up to the potential of negative rake, and that only when one lacks proper spindle speed (a function of the horse power) and rigidity. If your mac...

I'm short of time, but I'll try to address your questions. We may have to kick this thing back and forth a few times, but answers to your questions are available, although you may or may not like what you read. First, lets talk about a quick change. As I said previously, a quick change does not care...

You clearly do not understand the principles by which negative rake tooling works. For starters, while a scratch cut results in the tip making contact with the work, a serious cut (for which negative rake was intended) it does not . When negative rake is applied as intended, the cutting occurs well ...

Thanks! Pretty simple.

H

Sure, Scotty, anything you can share is welcome. Most of us are learning, not pro's. I have extensive experience in melting with gas furnaces, and the heavy use of fluxes. However, that experience is restricted to the melting of silver. I know that fluxing is really hard on not only the crucible, bu...

What you'll discover as you progress is that it is far more difficult to control size with negative rake. Sure, you get a nicer finish, but the guy with a 9" lathe, powered by a fractional horse power motor, isn't likely to duplicate your results. You'll also struggle endlessly if (when) you must ho...

Interestingly, the author argues that an induction furnace is best for brass making. He's right, and for a couple reasons. For one, it heats without altering chemistry, but the most important feature is that an induction furnace stirs constantly. The heat becomes fully homogenous as a result. Scott...

I am not aware of problems with tin distilling, but it melts at a low temp and does oxidize, so I suspect it should be added at the same time one adds zinc. The molten glass covering should go a long way towards protecting the heat against losses to distillation as well as to oxidation. I would stil...

Thanks. I was amazed at the performance, as well as the sound.

H

One thing for sure---you'd want to add the zinc to molten metal, and allow it to melt. If you start with molten zinc and heat it to the point of melting brass, you'd distill off a huge amount of zinc. Add the zinc, stir well. In any case, you're going to lose some zinc. The fumes should be avoided. ...

Wow! That's totally impressive!
Thanks for the video.
One question. The stack talk is very robust. How did you accomplish such a deep throated sound? Very, very nice.

H

While not for a locomotive, yes, I've silver soldered brass or bronze to steel many times. It works perfectly well, assuming you avoid aluminum bronze. It's difficult to solder with the flux commonly used for silver soldering. It, too, may solder fine with the proper flux.

H